Eliza Welham's (nee Goodwin) grave site

To Whom It May Concern.

My brother and I recently visited Cathedral Park to find the tombstone of our great, great, great grandmother Eliza Welham, listed in the grave inscriptions on your web site as grave nos 19.

It did not say it was damaged or unreadable, and we were disappointed to be told at the council office that it had been removed in the 1970s

Eliza and her husband Samuel Welham lived in the Newcastle area for 40 years, and their pottery, the Welham Pottery at Merewether was Newcastle’s first significant pottery.

As this is where our family history began in Australia we would like to have some memorial there for future generations of our family and wonder what you could suggest would be suitable

Kind regards

Bev Morphett (nee Welham) Sippy Downs, Queensland, Australia, and Murray Welham, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Reply from Newcastle City Council

19/3/2012

Dear Ms Morphett and Mr Murray Welham

CATHEDRAL PARK NEWCASTLE

Cathedral Park is the site of Newcastle’s oldest European cemetery and the resting place of over 3300 of the city’s colonial habitants.  In 1966, the NSW Government passed the Christ Church Cathedral cemetery Act (The Act) to enable the subdivision of lands owned by the Anglican Diocese of Newcastle and the establishment of a public park to be vested in Council ownership.

The Act proscribed certain conditions including preparation of a photographic record; and a survey of graves.  All monuments were transferred to the ownership of Council.  Associated landscape works, including a memorial to those buried in the cemetery, were to be installed within a reasonable time frame.

Works on site commenced in 1972.  The burials were left undisturbed; while the monuments were moved elsewhere.  Some were used in retaining walls or taken to other parks for landscaping.  Eighty- five monuments were moved to the east side where they remain.

Such changes would not be contemplated today, and Council acknowledges that the park is under-utilised and does not reflect community values.  Consequently, Council is preparing a Master Plan to guide a series of staged improvements to resolve presentation, proper visitor facilities, install artworks, interpretive signage and landscaping.  The remaining monuments are to be restored and re-positioned over their recorded grave plot.

The draft Master Plan includes provision for the names to be presented within the park.  It is proposed to inscribe all of these names within new pedestrian pathways.

Council will be seeking comments on the draft Masterplan during May 2012.  Please check Council’s website during May to view the draft and make a submission.

Yours faithfully

Sarah Cameron

Heritage Strategist.

31 May, 2012.

The Newcastle City Council’s draft of the Cathedral Park Master Plan

The Cathedral Park Master Plan is now on the Newcastle City Council’s website:

www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au

On the left hand side of the page, click on Consultations, then Community consultations. Scroll down to Public Exhibitions and click on the heading: Draft Cathedral Park Master Plan.

Of the 3300 registered burials in the former Christ Church cemetery, only 54 are able to be conserved and returned to their grave locations.  Unfortunately Eliza Welham and her grandson’s gravestone is not one of these.  However the council intends to form a brick pathway in the park with the names of all recorded in the burial register etched in the bricks, which is rather fitting for Eliza Welham, with her husband Samuel having been a brickmaker and potter.

Submissions on the Master Plan close on Monday 4 June, 2012.